LYKKE LI!

I went to go see Lykke Li in Boston last night, something I've been looking forward to for months. And I was not disappointed in the least. I tried to recruit people to go with me but nobody that gave me an answer could go (and those that did want to go never got back to me) so I did feel a little weird being there by myself, but I wasn't about to miss her concert on account of that. Her performance was outstanding, a lot of good energy and she could definitely work the crowd. She also rocked out with her signature bull horn; I dunno where she got the idea for that but it really works. Somehow she managed to make my least favorite of her songs ("Let It Fall" a song about how she enjoys crying) a pounding rock out version. Though she also did this really strange thing with one of my very favorite songs ("Complaint Department" an exquisitely concieved musical middle finger) where she altered her voice to make it this male demon voice. I like her voice a lot so I thought it took away from the song somewhat. Though in a thinly veiled irony, I can't complain—she's not the complaint department.
This was perhaps the first concert I've been to where I have been really into the artist. I mean Pinback is nice, as are Smashing Pumpkins and Jimmy Eat World but I was never a huge, huge fan of them. This was different, and so I now understand people's enthusiasm with concerts a lot more. It was also a new thing for me that I knew every song she played, and knew that she wasn't done because she hadn't sang them all yet. She also did some really good covers, Wendy Rene's "After laughter comes tears" and a hip hop song whose name escapes me.
After the last song, and after her plugging her merchandise, everyone was heading out and as we all filed past the table selling albums and t-shirts I look over and there she was! She was personally selling the stuff and signing autographs (very patiently I might add since people had to open the plastic wrapping of the LPs they wanted signed). Since I had already bought her album way back before it was available in the US, I just bought a pin and very politely asked her to sign my ticket. I had sort of planned to say something in Swedish to her, like "Var trevligt att träffas" or even just "Tack" but I was too starstruck. And having seen her up close I can say with absolute certainty that she is adorable.

FTW

Last week the new batch of grad students all went over to our professor's house to have dinner with a distinguished guest lecturer, John Relethford. He's the author of one of the anthro department's required readings, a good book but one meant for undergrads. The material covers a lot of the stuff I learned in my GenEd "Human Variation in the Modern World" back at the U of A, so there wasn't too much that I hadn't already learned. Those of you who keep track will recall that it was that GenEd that inspired me to become an anthropologist in the first place so while reading the book didn't teach me a lot of new things, it was pleasant to reread all of the things that got me hooked in the first place. The professor told us the dinner was an opportunity to ask him questions about the book since we had to discuss it in class and write reviews. On our way there, a friend and I were wondering how long we would stay. I mean, the end result of the book is fascinating but what are we going to ask him? "So, tell us, when you had finally plotted the ABO bloodtype markers in all those Irish villages what kind of expectations did you have?" It turns out we ended up staying until 9:45 or so because the guy is totally awesome. The talk at the dinner table shifted from a somewhat forced discussion on anthropological stuff to a meandering conversation on our favorite sci-fi shows. He's a fan of Stargate SG1 (Atlantis not so much), Battlestar Galactica (even the original series), and Star Trek to name but a few. He's also a bit of a comic book nerd, commenting on the changes in Spider-Man's character over the decades or how dark X-Men is getting. By now, it's pretty much him, me and one other student talking all kinds of nerdy stuff while the others are all listening, chiming in with some smart-ass remark about Dungeons and Dragons and yet being largely left out of the conversation. John Relethford is a totally down to earth kind of guy, a complete nerd and a distinguished professor. It's good to see that once you've reached that spot in your career you're still allowed to enjoy the simple things, a welcome change from the brilliant but out of touch professors I've known.

Seen It

Eagle Eye with Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan. This movie is impossible to properly review without SPOILERS!
The concept behind this movie, while becoming increasingly relevant to today's world has been done to death. And while I admit to being entertained I have to say it was by no means an improvement on the concept. Also I wonder to what extent the things that happen in the movie are even feasible. OK, super-powerful AI that has the resources of the US military at its disposal, I get that. But little things like being able to remote activate the eject seat on an F-16, seems like if you network computers on manned vehicles like that you're just asking for an enemy to disable you without firing a shot. Also, as was mentioned in Multiplex, why the AI doesn't just shoot missiles at the White House when it clearly doesn't care about collateral damage is a bit of a plot hole. Other people I went to go see it with were hanging on the edge of their seat, not knowing what was going to happen next. I was not one of those people, I found it to be quite predictable. But then again, when you figure out it's an AI from almost the very beginning the motives and plot become quite clear. Think I, Robot, Terminator, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Deus Ex, Battlestar Galactica and a little bit of Portal thrown in as well. Y'know, the old "AI knows better than the humans and uses the immense power the humans have trustingly given it to take power for itself and may or may not end up killing everyone" routine. The movie would have been better had the AI won and we would have a nation run by a computer. It would have been interesting to see what would become of the world then.